Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be tall, dark and handsome. Just tall? Even dark? Plain handsome? A little reflection helps me appreciate that I may be lucky not to be any of those things. I mean, how would I cope being a beautiful person with everything and everyone handed to me on a plate?
Such total lack of challenge or effort has to be bad for character. You’d never develop resilience. Then, you wouldn’t need to. But it has to be exhausting, with everyone demanding your attention all the time. Women, of all ages, shapes, sizes and most genders, throwing themselves at you. Gay men, bi men, straight men suddenly experiencing doubt, all flashing radiant smiles at you, indicating something more than a “come hither”. Awful.
It has to be hell. Such endless nuisance with none of the peace that is my daily bread, if occasionally dull.
And human beauty can cause wars. Being the female equivalent of tall, dark and handsome has driven [relatively] sane people – men mostly – so out of their minds it caused a war. Helen of Troy comes to mind, she whose face launched a thousand ships. She, whose beauty Homer never described, leaving it up to every age to determine that in line with its own perception of exceptional beauty. Clever.
RM Block
For research purposes I suggest you go to a cinema near you and watch this year’s summer blockbuster The Odyssey. It illustrates what I mean.
On the other hand I’ve never thought Leonardo’s Mona Lisa particularly beautiful, but, oh that smile [naughty girl]. Nor do I find Michaelangelo’s David an exceptional example of handsome youth. He’s tall, certainly, but neither dark or noticeably chiselled. Then he is white marble.
This business of being handsome or beautiful is all so subjective. Even the handsome man or beautiful woman must get utterly bored looking at the same face in the mirror day after day, even doubting their own beauty, breeding an insecurity.
It’s hardly surprising then that the evil witch in Snow White keeps asking her mirror “...who is the fairest of them all?” And look what it drove her to do, horrible creature.
Then I would never, ever, do such horrid things were I tall, dark or handsome. Perhaps.
Handsome, from Middle English handsom for “easy to handle”.
